Over 46% have the Hoosiers winning the South (once again, including the Lunatic).  And so, as Temple maintained its small lead throughout the majority of the second half, many of us were starting to prepare to rip up our brackets.

Fortunately, Indiana held in their – eventually tied the game when Cody Zeller drove to the basket and was fouled – hitting his two FTs.  Then, off a missed three pointer Khalif Wyatt, Victor Oladipo was fouled in transition and hit a FT.   After another defensive stand by the Hoosiers, IU got the ball inside to Zeller, and with time winding down on the shot clock, he passed to a wide-open Oladipo at the top of the key – who calmly nailed the three-pointer to give the Hoosiers a commanding 4 point lead with 15 seconds to play.

The un-heralded part of this is the great defense that Indiana played at the end of the game.  The only points that Temple got in the final 4 minutes was two FTs from their star player.  They would never have been able to make the comeback they did without stopping Temple from scoring so often.

For Big 10 fans everywhere, the most important phrase to remember is – SURVIVE AND ADVANCE!!!!!!   Kudos go out to both Iowa State and Temple – they played amazingly great games and both almost pulled off classic upsets.  But in the end, it is the Big 10’s conference tournament champion and regular season champion who survived to play in the Sweet 16.

Hope the rest of the games continue on like this – it has been a very exciting day of basketball so far.